AbstractRetrieval of chlorophyll fluorescence magnitude using Fluorescence Height algorithms in coastal waters is more complicated than in the open ocean because of the strong deviations of elastic reflectance within the fluorescence band from the derived fluorescence baseline. We use results of our recently established relationship between fluorescence magnitude and concentrations of water constituents together with extensive HYDROLIGHT simulations, field and satellite data to analyze the performance and retrieval limitations of MODIS and MERIS FLH algorithms in the variety of coastal waters and to examine improvements for spectral band selection suitable for future sensors. (C) 2008 Optical Society of America.